Recollections: The Building of BWH

When Chief Medical Officer Andy Whittemore, MD, joined BWH in 1976 as a vascular surgery fellow, one of the biggest perks was the ample parking available.

“Everyone had their own spot on Shattuck Street marked by a placard with their name on it,” said Whittemore, who came to the Peter Bent Brigham from a New York hospital where parking was scarce.

Biff Eschback, Andy Whittemore and Bob Raymond

At that time, there were tennis and handball courts for staff, along with Brigham Green, a grassy area outside 15 Francis St.

Did You Know?

The original concept for the patient care tower was to build a separate tower for each of the predecessor hospitals around a central core with common services. (above)

The first references to what is known as the Nesson Pike are found as early as the 1960s, when the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital consisted of several separate buildings—the A, B, C, D and E buildings—adjoined by a Pike.

When the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital was constructed in 1911, planners decided to skimp on the exterior, using no marble on the columns, in order to save funds for hospital operations and care.

These historical tidbits and personal recollections provided a look into the hospital’s past at last week’s Archives Lecture, sponsored by the Medical Library. Bob Raymond, senior architect and planner, walked guests through the building of BWH and how it has changed over the years, and longtime BWHers Whittemore and Charles “Biff” Eschback, supervisor of Engineering, chimed in with personal stories.

Many who attended the lecture shared in the reminiscing. When the Tower opened in 1980, for example, physicians who helped move patients in were left with one major question that night.

“Where are we supposed to sleep?” asked David Sugarbaker, MD, now chief of Thoracic Surgery who was a Surgery resident at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1980. “There were on-call rooms at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for us to sleep in, but we couldn’t find any in the Tower.”

Guests recalled how the number of tennis courts dwindled as the hospital expanded and needed more space for patient care, research and offices. The presentation concluded with a video of the moving of six houses on Francis Street in 2001 to allow for construction of the Shapiro Cardiovascular Center, which opened this year.

After the presentation, Eschback shared his collection of BWH Bulletins gathered throughout the years.

Construction of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1911

Share your stories!

3 Comments

Food
There was a room with coin operated food dispensers called (shamelessly) the Brighomat. There was a doctors dining room where information and consults could be exchanged. No longer politically correct but it had a value for patient care and research.

The River
I started woking in the ED in 1974. At that time there actually was a Brigham Circle, a Peter's Bent deli and a disco bar were the Mission now stands.
There were 7 Rooms in the ED - including a Trauma room and Holding Unit.
The waiting room held a number of patients including the homless living on the circle, wandering patients from Mass Mental as well as those who were lucky enough to be neither.
There are numberous stories that would make you laugh or tug at your heart strings ... But my favorite is not a story but a tid bit named "The River".
The ED was at base of the ramp of the Peter Bent Brigham lobby. When weather forcast included intense rain we would all awaited the big event. It would start with a trickle, then a stream and then the river - making its way though main doors into the waiting room then into the Trauma room. The River reached its peak flow after the 1978 blizzard when the melting snow and ice started its treck into the unit.
There were two drains built in the ED to accept the flow - one in the waiting room and the other in the trauma room. When "The River" made it to the trauma room we knew we had problems. Our usual patients just knew to walk though it or over it depending on the size.
So the movie name "A River Runs Though It" really existed in the Old Peter Bent.